Talking to the Formula AllCode robot using the Raspberry Pi

The Formula AllCode robotics course is great for makers to test their skills and capabilities or for introducing learners to programming and robotics in a fun and motivating way. The robot is compatible with hardware from Raspberry Pi to Android to iPhone, Windows PC’s, MAC and more.

This tutorial guides you through the process of setting up a Raspberry Pi with a USB Bluetooth dongle so it can communicate with AllCode. Once the set-up is complete, we’ll be able to send simple commands to toggle LED’s, receive information from sensors, just to show some of the functionalities of the Formula AllCode.

The Formula AllCode is currently a Kickstarter campaign. Back it today by clicking here.

Setting up Bluetooth Connection

We’ll assume you’re running Raspbian on your Pi and that your USB dongle it’s already plugged into one of the ports. Open the command line terminal and type in the following command:

The Formula AllCode robotics course is great for makers to test their skills and capabilities or for introducing learners to programming and robotics in a fun and motivating way.

Raspberry Pi is one of a number of hosts for this neat little robot from Matrix TSL​, designed as part of a course in robotics that aims to cater for beginners and advanced users alike. It’s controlled over Bluetooth from any platform that can support the Bluetooth RFCOMM protocol, so you can program for it in just about anything (popular examples are provided).

Matrix TSL have also written a full tutorial about how users will talk to the Formula AllCode robot using the Raspberry Pi.

Kitted out with a variety of sensors, microphone, speakers and LCD display, and with capacity for expansion, it has plenty of appeal, and it’s on Kickstarter now with 18 days left to go. You can back the project by clicking here.

The robot can be used with hosts including Windows, MAC, Raspberry Pi, Android and iPhone and a number of examples can be seen in the headline video and on the Matrix TSL website at www.matrixtsl.com/formula-allcode

A low cost robot buggy, the AllCode is great for makers to test their skills and capabilities using an interesting and diverse platform or for introducing younger school children to programming and robotics in a fun and motivating way with huge scope for further work and competitions.

The video below explains more about the vision for Formula AllCode and provides some examples of what the robot itself can achieve when used with Raspberry Pi, Android, Flowcode etc.